introducing 3yo to indian food

my dh has always loved indian food. I recently developed a taste for it when I was pregnant with ds. Now we both love it but our 3 yo won't touch it. I'm sure what we're eating is too spicy for her. Could anyone recommend a recipe or a dish or some way to introduce this type of food to her. I'm getting tired of fixing 2 dinners every night or constantly being subjected to spaghtetti or mac n chees/hot dogs.
thanks so much

RE: introducing 3yo to indian food

Well, does she try new things in general? Does she like yogurt, or rice? Dal and raita are normally not spicy, and raita is just flavored yogurt... Dal is lentil soup, if that's something she'll eat in general.

DD would try anything once, so she's not a great example, but I know she'll always eat rice and nan (particularly DH's favorite, Kashmiri nan, which is sweet and has raisins in it). For things that might be too spicy, I mix a little bit with a lot of rice. Or yogurt. Or both.

RE: introducing 3yo to indian food

Thanks, before i started looking around on the internet i didn't know there was such diversity in indian food. There's a great website for indian food. Indolink.com just in case you were looking for recipes. I found a lot of non spicy food in it and dd really likes yogurt and loves rice so we might have a chance. She not very adventurous with food these days, but I think it's more of a phase than anything else. Is nan difficult to make at home. I've never tried before but it looks like it might be tricky. So far the only thing we've made at home if patak's mild curry. Tonight we're having yogurt garlic cucumber salad with as dd says sis a bob (shish ka bob) . I let you know how the adventure goes. I hate the idea of her thinking bologna, mac n cheese and the like are the cats meow.

RE: introducing 3yo to indian food

I think nan would take some practice to do at home -- like tortillas it's easy if you do it every day from childhood watching your mama but not so much if you have to figure it out by yourself. I'd buy it, but then I live in a neighborhood where there's almost always somebody in a sari at the park, so it's not hard to get Indian food...

RE: introducing 3yo to indian food

DD likes chana masala (chick peas) and tandoori chicken. They're pretty close to what she would normally eat, without all the sauce which makes Indian food seem even more foreign than the spices do. She also likes Gobi aloo (cauliflower and potatoes).

Try searching for those recipes on the web or at the Indian grocer. I am terrible at making my own Indian sauce, so we just buy the jars. More expensive, but it tastes correct.

Trader Joe's sells a frozen nan. It doesn't seem like it would be so good but it really is. It is so easy to make...just about 60 seconds in the oven and a little butter on top if you like it that way. It is sooooo good.
TJ's also sells some masala sauce. It is very good as it is but if it's too spicy for DD you could add yogurt to make it milder.
Good luck. My DD (17 months) used to be a picky eater but she's gotten better with time. She recently ate an Indonesian 10 spice dish! One of the things that helped was giving her MAJOR applause when she finally tried the food, then she really wanted to eat some more.

Premade Indian Sauces

We love love love Mr. Kooks Chicken Tikka Masala sauce (made in USA). I never ate this growing up, so I have compared it to restaurant CTM, and this sauce is so much better. Just saute chicken, add sauce and a little bit of half and half. Serve w/rice or naan. It is ready in 10 minutes. As a bonus, the fenugreek in it is a lactogogue. It *looks* like my Whole Foods will no longer carry the CTM sauce though...www.mrkooks.com

We also like Maya Kaimal sauces (made in USA), in the refrigerated section at Fresh Market. I hear it is also at Costco in sunny Ca. WS carries some of them too. The coconut curry is pretty good.www.mayakaimal.com

I also make chana masala and chicken curry etc using Madras Curry Powder (made in India, I have to go look up the manufacturer, not Sun, not McCormick) from Meijer, which is not hot spicy in my opinion. DS is 3 and loves chana masala, rice, yogurt and the Mr. Kooks CTM.

His all time favorite is chapati with a little bit of brown sugar, rolled up!

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